SpellCheck Not Working

[RjS, CISSP, CISA]

Hi - I just installed Outlook 2007 on my Windows XP Pro 2002 SP2 system. Most
nearly everything went ok but one really nagging problem is that the
questions on the Editor Options - Proofing menue under "When correcting
spelling in Outlook" are all greyed out. They are all checked, but they are
grayed out and cannot be accessed or brought up. When typing the spell
checker does not check spelling as you type nor are any of the other grayed
out features that are checked actually enabled. I have searched the posts for
anything simular but came up empty. Any suggestions would be most gratefully
accepted.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Did you only install Outlook 2007 or was it part of an Office Suite that you
installed?

 

[RjS, CISSP, CISA]

Just did Outlook 2007 for now

Did you only install Outlook 2007 or was it part of an Office Suite that you
installed?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Have you verified that the spell check components have been installed?
Also, make sure you are not running any previous version of any Office
application when starting Outlook. Does it work now?

 

[RjS, CISSP, CISA]

Hmmm - I wasnt aware that I had to manually install any additional
components. With 2003 you just installed Outlook and got it all. Is there a
URL that might cover this topic in more detail?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Run setup-> select custom install and select which components you want to
install. Sounds like you have done this before already to only install
Outlook and not the rest of the suite.

 

[tommy]

Installing the program and selecting the proofing tools does not help, I've
experienced the same problem. What was weird is that after I initially
installed the software, the spell-checker worked fine, underlining misspelled
words as I typed. The program just stopped working corretly on its own, and
the selection boxes are greyed out so I can't make any changes at all now.

I completely uninstalled Outlook and reinstalled it with no luck.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

But do you also have a previous version of Word/Office installed or are
those the same version?

 

[tommy]

Yes, I have other Office 2003 programs installed, I prefer them, Outlook2007
was the only program I installed from the new suite. Now I had just
completely wiped out my hard disk and re-installed XP, then Office2003, then
Outlook2007. Again, the spell checker was working OK for a little while, then
it stopped. When I to try to play with the AutoCorrect Options in
Outlook2007, I get an annoying beep and the error message "The list of common
math AutoCorrections is not available. This feature is not enabled......"
which makes no sense. All of the "When correcting spelling in Outlook"
features are greyed out, although the check spelling as you type box is
selected.....

 

[RjS, CISSP, CISA]

I, too, have the full suite of Office 2003 pro programs installed. I upgraded
to Outlook 2007 at the request of my Exchange service provider and they
provided the upgrade software.

I have also uninstalled and re-installed the program, keeping an eye out for
any options that wiould cover additional or add-in functionality but the
former didnt make any difference and the latter didnt occur. All of the spell
and grammer checking options are checked but are fully grayed out and not
functioning with no obvious way to ungray them or enable them.

 

[tommy]

I read some references about Linux versions being effected my ANtivirus
programs. I installed the latest McAffee suite but can't imagine why that
would influence the program.

 

[Adam]

I am having the exact same problem as these people and under the same
circumstances. Please help. I am a terrible speller, and I like to use
SmartQuotes.

 

[Sarah]

Same problem here. Getting:

"the list of common math autocorrections is not available.
this feature is not available. to make this feature available, run setup
again, click "add or remove feature and change the feature to run from my
computer"

This was configured upon setup. Only installed Outlook 2007. Proofing
tools are also configured to run all from my computer. Anyone find a
solution yet? I couldn't find anything along google searches.

I checked my developers computer, which has the entire office 2007 suite.
He is able to access the autocorrect options. So this leads me to believe
that we need Word 2007 installed for this to work. Even though Word isn't
used as a mail editor like in Outlook 2003, I've seen on help guides that it
still references Word for autocorrection and Outlook 2007 isn't compatible
with Word 2003.

Hope this answers everyone's question/problem. If anyone finds a work
around I would love to know what it is.

 

[Richard Baker]

Unfortunately the solution is to install Word 2007. I was having the Autocorrect options problem also on two of my workstations that had only Outlook 2007 installed along with the rest of Office 2003. As soon as in installed Word 2007, the AutoCorrect options were available and no longer greyed out. It didn't require uninstalling Word 2003 so I don't have to use Word 2007.

 

[VanguardLH]

Richard Baker wrote:

What is with the posting of one huge long line instead of wrapping at or
before 72 to 76 characters maximum line length? When you read a book,
would it be convenient to flip through pages of same width or to unroll
a spool the read one extremely long line? Whatever NNTP client you use
really sucks. Your post was reformatted below for readability.

Unfortunately the solution is to install Word 2007.

Or not use Word at all and instead just use the new-mail editor included
in Outlook 2007. Unfortunately Microsoft took away that choice. In
prior versions, Outlook had its own editor. In OL2007, along with other
bad design choices, Microsoft decided to use a stub of Word 2007 as the
editor.

I was having the
Autocorrect options problem also on two of my workstations that had
only Outlook 2007 installed along with the rest of Office 2003.

Which sounds like YOU chose to configure Outlook 2007 to use Word as the
new-mail editor. Versions of Outlook and Word must match for
integration to work. You only had OL2007 installed but had Word 2003
installed which probably conflicted with some of the modules for Word
2007 that is used by OL2007.

As
soon as in installed Word 2007, the AutoCorrect options were
available and no longer greyed out. It didn't require uninstalling
Word 2003 so I don't have to use Word 2007.

The joy of Outlook 2007 and Microsoft's choice of using Word as its
new-mail editor rather than to replace the embedded editor in prior
versions of Outlook with a decent HTML editor.

 

[jhowland]

I just fixed an Outlook 2007 spell check issue by renaming the Outlook
main registry key. It is: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
\12.0\Outlook. I just renamed it to Outlookold, and rebooted the
machine. The next time you open Outlook, it will recreate all the
registry keys for Outlook in this directory.

Another way to see if this will work is to just create a new user
profile, if the spelling works on the new profile, it is related to
the current_user registry entries.